Many people dismissed Boris Johnson as the Bertie Wooster of politics, someone who could not be taken seriously as a contender for Mayor of London, suitable as a stooge for Messrs Hislop and Merton on Have I Got News For You but not for running one of the world's great cities. Dan Ritterbrand, the journalist-turned-Tory politician's campaign manager, was handed the unenviable job of overcoming such preconceptions.

Now, as the Mayor's marketing director, he has another, equally challenging job — that of selling the capital during a recession. It is a tribute to his powers of persuasion that it sounds plausible when he talks of turning the industrial wasteland around the Olympic Park in East London into a “young, buzzy hub of entertainment and recreation” by “migrating the Hoxton/Shoreditch trendies”.

As a former advertising executive at Saatchi & Saatchi, he knows a good marketing vehicle when he sees one. And the counter-cyclical opportunity offered by the £9.3 billion Olympic Games project is not one to pass up easily. “There is no better city in the world that matches Olympic ideals — personal bests and people coming together — and that's not adman-speak. I do think they mirror each other really well,” he said.

So Mr Ritterband, who was also communications director for David Cameron during his leadership campaign, and Visit London are preparing for a rebranding of the capital that is closely entwined with a reinvention of its identity through the 2012 Games.

“The time is right to ask what it means to be a Londoner. As any consumer brand relaunch is laying out your stall, it gives us an opportunity to talk about ourselves differently and how we want to be seen to the world.”

The rebranding will not involve an overnight change of London's livery, but a gradual campaign to alter some perceptions of the capital as an expensive and unpleasant place to live, shop, work and play. An advertising agency will be appointed this summer.

A £2 million drive, announced by Mr Johnson today, to attract international trade is the start of London's pitch to preserve its status as the top tourist destination and the home of financial services. The Olympics is central to a strategy to boost the fortunes of the retail, leisure, hospitality and creative industries not merely in the East of London but across the capital.

“If you think you can set the tone for the area in Games time you will fail. You need at least a year,” Mr Ritterband said. “Ideally, we'll have New Year's Eve in 2011 and 2012 out at the [Olympic] Park. I'm also asking: why aren't we getting music festivals in there? It's the largest park in Europe in 100 years — that's amazing. We have to make sure it's safe and clean and people are going on picnics there. The fear that stalks me at night is Montreal commemorating paying off their debt after 30 years by bulldozing their stadium. That would be such a crime. It's got to be regularly used.”

London's deficiencies in the leisure sector will be brought home to Mr Ritterband when he attends Sport Accord, the biggest sports trade show, in Denver this week. “We are not so hot on business tourism and the primary reason is that we don't have an international convention centre,” he said. “What can we create out East? If we can't find the money to build one, which is looking likely, we have to build up ExCeL and Earls Court.”

London hopes to host Sport Accord — whose speakers this year include George Gillett, co-owner of Liverpool football club; Ted Turner, founder of CNN; and Andre Agassi, the former Wimbledon champion — either before or after the 2012 Games.

The Games itself offers the chance to showcase the diversity of London's businesses. More than 10,000 foreign journalists will be in the capital and day trips to theatreland or film studios organised by the Mayor's office will be part of their itineraries.

“In Beijing, it was a hell of an operation,” Mr Ritterband said. “The Chinese used it as their propaganda stand. I found books on centralised democracy and Chinese lifestyle that they encouraged journalists to take. We'll do it a bit differently.”

Perhaps Mr Johnson, a Classics undergraduate, will hand out copies of The Emperor's Babe, Bernardine Evaristo's novel about Roman-occupied Londonium, to bemused correspondents. Mr Ritterband is probably negotiating a bulk order discount.

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